Nwannunu died from pneumonia

An autopsy of College senior Kenneth Nwannunu revealed that he died of bacterial pneumonia with sepsis, his mother, Denise Williams, said Sunday.

Nwannunu died on Sept. 23, three weeks into studying abroad in Shanghai, China.

Due to communications difficulties, such as the language barrier and time differences, University officials were only recently able to determine the cause of his death.

On Sunday, his family released the results of the autopsy, which was conducted in the United States.

Williams said she spoke to her son on the evening of Sept. 22, Eastern Standard Time, which was the morning of Sept. 23, in Shanghai.

He sounded congested and reported having a fever and chills over the preceding several days, she said. He was taking DayQuil and planned to skip class that day to rest.

Williams asked her son whether he thought he had H1N1 influenza, and he said people “did not talk about it in China very much,” so she simply warned him to be careful.

Nwannunu later reported feeling better and went out with some of his friends, according to Williams, but went into respiratory arrest when leaving a club and was taken to the nearest hospital. There, he was intubated but “not treated aggressively,” according to Williams, and he insisted on leaving the hospital.

Nwannunu went to sleep, but “by the time his roommates realized he was in respiratory distress, it was too late,” she said.

He was scheduled to graduate with honors in May, his mother wrote in a statement.

A Philosophy, Politics and Economics major, Nwannunu was a member of the debate team and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He also played football his freshman year.

Although he had not taken any Chinese classes at Penn, Nwannunu chose to study abroad in China to expand his horizons.

“Of course, he understood the prominence of China in our economy,” Williams said. “He decided to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Nwannunu was interested in international economy and hoped to attend law school, she added.

Besides his mother, Nwannunu is survived by his father, John; sister, Florence Amara; and brother, Nelson.

A memorial service was held in his memory on Oct. 7. Friends described him as energetic, friendly and social.

His mother called him “extremely bright, open-minded, inquisitive, interested in exposure to different cultures. He saw the world as his oyster.”

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